Product Test

Published On: January 1, 1970

When the lighting designer for James Taylor’s 2014 tour came to Peter Finder and described his vision for a stage backdrop that used both back and front lighting, Finder suggested something new.

He’d recently heard of a process from one of the company’s fabric suppliers, called custom woven jacquard, that allows an image to be digitally woven into the textile. “It’s an interplay of a sheer base and some more opaque elements,” Finder says. The lighting used on the curtain created various effects, particularly depth.

“We really enjoy working with new processes, but if we’re under a time constraint, it’s not easy to work in a new process that takes some R&D,” Finder says. In this case, Rose Brand had a three-month lead time, “which is an eternity in our business,” he says. That was enough time to do some testing, to prove some theories so they knew they could get what they wanted. “If it didn’t work, we had enough time to try a different process,” he says.

Finder sees multiple applications for this technique. “You can create abstract imagery, you can create text, or logos for marketing,” he says. “It’s very apparent when you see it live, how backlighting and frontlighting interplay because the fabric has various depths woven into it.”